Vending machine



Feb. 6, 1934. H, c WILLIAMSON 1,946,183

VENDING MACHINE Filed April 26, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet l gma'ni oc fiah/iZZ'z'amson Feb, 6, 1934. H. c. WILLIAMSON VENDING MACHINE FiledApril 26, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 nmrse STATES rarenrorrice Patented Feb.6, 1934 VENDING MACHINE Henry C. Williamson, Marlin, Tex. ApplicationApril 26,1930. Serial No 447,649

8 Claims.

This invention relates to vending machines and particularly to machinesfor vending stacked articles such as tablets, packages of paper, goodsin flat packages or indeed any article which may be stacked one aboveanother in a magazine'to be vended one by one therefrom.

It has been suggested by the parent-teachers association that a stock ofschool supplies be kept in eachv school to be sold to the pupils,thereby doing away with the pretended necessity of pupils going out ofschool to shops in the neighborhod for tablets, lesson paper and thelike, apractice which may lead to the formation of illadvisedacquaintanceships, to the running up of small bills unknown to theparents and with playing slot machines to delays in the school work, andto chances of trafiic accident. 1

The general object of the present invention is the provision of avending machine designed to ;be kept in the school, the vending machinebeing adapted to vend school supplies upon'the deposit of a proper coinor token.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a vendingmachine, particularly adapted for vending tablets, packages of paper andthe iike.

In the vending of such articles as tablets,

stacked in a magazine, it has been found thatifthe article is vendedfrom the lower end of the stack, the stack cannot contain at the mostmore than forty ordinary sized tablets of paper and operate properly forthe reason that if, for instance, there are forty tablets in themagazine, the weight of thirty-nine of these tablets. will have to besupported entirely by the lowermost tablet and that under thesecircumstancesynot only does this superincumbent weight impede theoperation of the machine to such an extent that small or weak childrenare unable'to operate it successfully, but that such weight is exert"-ed on the lowermost tablet that when the lowermost tablet is pushed out,it is very liable to be torn or otherwise injured. Of course, with eachsucceeding tablet which is vended, the machine becomes easier to operateand with less liability.

of damage to the article being vended, but at the best, such machinesare limited in the number of articles which can be stacked in themagazine. It is, therefore, one of the particular objects of thispresent invention to provide a machine which will permit any number oftablets to be stacked within a magazine without any limitation except asregards the ordinary limitations of convenience and in actual practice,I provide a magazine which may support from sixty to onev tablets orother articles of diiferent thicknesses, so that the machine does nothave to be changed or adjusted for different thicknesses'of tablets;

or articles and furthermore which is so con structed that it will vendfrom the same magazine, tablets varying in thickness. I

Another object is to provide a machine of this character whichnecessitates that the slot be just the size of the article being vendedso as to prevent any more than one article passing out through the slotat .one time, but in which the articles are shifted fromthe top of thestack rearward into a discharge chute, the front wall' of which isformed by the stack of articles and by this discharge chute is conveyeddownward to a discharge opening of ample size to' permit the readyremoval of the tablet and of such size as to permit tablets of differentthicknesses to be discharged therefrom. Another object is to providemeans for preventing the articles underneath the articles being vendedfrom being shifted by friction out of position. I Another object is totake advantage of the usually relatively heavy pasteboard' backing of, atablet andthe usually heavy paper smooth; surfaced cover of the tabletto permit'the tablet to be positively engaged'by the ejecting means andpermit the tablet to shift over lower tablets with the least possiblefriction. Other objects will appear in the course of the followingdescription. My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings,wherein Figure 1 is a vertical sectional View through construction ofthe ejector arm and allied parts, the supporting} plate being insection;

Figure 4 is a section on the line 4-4 of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary detailed section on theline 5--5 of Figure 2;

Figure 6. is a section on Figure 2;

Figure '7 Ba fragmentary planview of the the line 66- --of? vertisingmatter.

operating mechanism, the main shaft being in section;

Figure 8 is a section through the shaft 41 showing the arm 42 in plan;

Figure 9 is a fragmentary elevation showing the coin closing device.

Referring to these drawings, 10 designates the casing of a vendingmachine unit, it being understood that as many of these units may beused as desired or as there are articles to be vended. This unit has anarea in cross section sufiicient to contain therein the tablets A.Disposed at any suitable height from the base of the unit is asupporting plate 11 having its forward margin downwardly flanged. Thisfits between lateral lining plates 12 having inturned flanges 13.

The tablets A normally abut against these flanges 13 and the magazinedesignated 14 and formed above the plate 11 may be of any suitableheight. The front of the magazine is to be closed by a removable platehaving an opening through which the tablets or other articles may beseen. This front plate may also contain ad Below the magazine the casingis also closed by a front plate which carries the coin controlledmechanism whereby the machine is operated and which plate is formed witha delivery slot 15.

The plate 11 as shown in Figure 1 does not extend back to the rear wallof the casing or cabinet but only sufiiciently far back as to support aseries of tablets stacked thereon so that back of the stacked tabletsthere is provided a space 16 constituting part of a chute, the lowerportion of this chute being formed by two plates 17 and 18 which extendto and discharge through the discharge opening 15.

For the purpose of discharging the articles from the magazine 14, Iprovide preferably in one front corner of the magazine in a slot formedin the lining plate 12, a vertical shaft 19. This shaft extends up thefull height of the magazine and also extends below the plate 11 anysuitable distance. Disposed below the supporting plate 11 is a plate 20,the shaft 19 extending downward below this plate and this plate 20supporting means for oscillating the shaft.

Mounted upon the shaft 19 is a sleeve 21 which may either wholly orpartially embrace the shaft 19, this sleve and shaft having a spline 22whereby the sleeve will rotate with the shaft, but will freely move upand down upon the shaft. Carried by the upper end of this sleeve is anarm 23 channel-shaped in cross section, the flanges of thechannel-shaped arm extending downward.

Disposed within this arm and attached by screws or like means 24 to thearm adjacent the shaft is a resilient member 25 which constitutes partof the arm. At its end, this resilient member is angularly bent as at 26and the extremity of this resilient member carries upon it thedownwardly extending tubular stud 27 enlarged at its lower end as at 28to form a socket and disposed within this circular socket is a roller 29mounted upon a stem 30 which extends loosely through the tubular stud.Thus this roller 29 has a slight play but is normally supported so thatit projects slightly below the lower edge of the tubular stud 27.Attached to the resilient plate 25 closely adjacent the tubular stud isan angular plate 31 having a downwardly extending flange 32 whichextends rearward and has its lower face rounded. This constitutes afinger or blade which bears against the upper face of the uppermosttablet of the stack and supports the arm 23 with the roller 29 extendingjust below the pasteboard backing a of the tablet A, the tablets beingso disposed within the magazine that this pasteboard back is on top ineach case. By reason of the fact that only the edge of the blade 32 orfinger bears against the top of the tablet, there is the least possiblefriction on the top of the tablet.

Loosely mounted upon the shaft immediately above the arm 23 is a plate33 having therein an arcuate slot 34 and having attached to the frontedge of the plate the inwardly projecting arm or finger 35, theextremity of which is laterally extended as at 36 and serrated. A screwor pin 37 projects through the slot 34 from the arm. Engaged at one endwith this plate 37 and at the other end with a pin on the arm 23 is aspring 38.

Thus, it will be obvious that when the shaft 19 is oscillated to carrythe arm toward the rear of the cabinet, the first movement of the armwill place the spring 38 under tension which will act to rotate theplate 33 and force the serrated edge 36 against a lower tablet ortablets and thus act to force the top tablet or lower tablets againstthe opposite side wall 12, thus holding these lower tablets against anypossible movement with the arm 23. This will appear more fully when Idescribe the operation of the mechanism.

For the purpose of oscillating the shaft 19, I mount upon the shaftbelow the plate 20 the arm 39. Depending from the plate 20 are the twosupporting flanges 40 within which is mounted a short section of ahorizontal shaft 41 adapted to aline with and be operated by the coinactuated mechanism. This shaft as illustrated is formed at its forwardend face with a clutch recess 41 Mounted upon the shaft is a dependingarm 42 and pivoted to this arm 42 for movement in a vertical plane is aconnecting link 43, the outer end of which is bifurcated and pivotallyengages a connecting rod 44. The link 43 has movement in a verticalplane on the arm 42 while the connecting rod 44 has pivotal movement ina horizontal plane on the end of the link 43. Thus a universal jointconnection is formed between arm 42 and the rod 44. Mounted upon avertically disposed stud 45 is an angularly bent arm 46, the extremityof which is connected to the rod 44 by a link 47 constructed in the samemanner as the link 43 so that thus this arm 46 and the arm 42 areconnected to each other by a linkage including universal jointconnections 43 and 47.

The arm 46 constitutes a lever which extends beyond the stud 45 and theextremity of this lever is connected to the arm 39 by a link 48 whichis, of course, pivoted to the extremities of the members 46 and 39.Surrounding the shaft 41 is a coiled spring 49 which acts to cause thereturn of the parts to their normal position and resist the rotation ofthe shaft 41 in one direction.

With this construction, it will be obvious that as the shaft 41 isrotated in a clockwise direction, the shaft 19 will also be rotated in adirection to carry the arm 23 rearward. Initially the roller 29 isdisposed immediately in front of the forward edge of the uppermosttablet of the stack. When the shaft 19 is rotated in the directionstated, the arm 23 is carried rearward. The

roller 29 engages the tablets and particularly that portion of thetablet which is reinforced by the backing a and as the shaft 19 isfurther rotated, this roller pushes the tablet rearward until themovement of the shaft 19 has been completed. This movement of the arm 23shifts the tablet the slot is closed after all of the articles havebeen:

back until its rear end approximates the rear wall of the magazine. Upona release of the actuating mechanism, after the completion of thismovement, the shaft 41 is, of course, rotated in a counter-clockwisedirection, as for instance, by the action of the spring 49 through itslinkage to the shaft 41 and the shaft 19 is also reversely rotated,carrying the arm 23 rearward until the blade 32 has escaped from thetablet. As soon as the blade 32 has escaped from the tablet, the tabletwill tip downward in the space 16 rearward of the stacked articles andwill slide downward through the chute 18 until its forward end isprojected through the discharge opening 15.

It will be noted that with the tablets arranged as stated, the tablet isprojected through the opening 15 with the face of the tablet upward. Thedischarge opening 15 is, of course, provided with a slight flange infront which prevents the complete discharge of the tablet, but permitsthe pupil to lift the tablet and pull it out. Of course, upon a returnmovement of the shaft 19, the arm 23 travels rearward over the upperface of the uppermost tablet with the roller 29 raised up within itssocket so that a smooth surface is provided on the under face of theejector as the arm 23 and allied parts may be called, until the arm hasreached its initial position, whereupon the roller 29 drops downward ofits own weight so as to project below the upper face of the tablet. It

is also to be noted that as soon as the movement of the arm 23 isstarted toward the rear, the spring 38 will be placed under tensionwhich will act to rotate the plate 33 or place a tension on this platewhich will urge the serrated end 36 of the finger 35 against the edgesof the tablets, forcing these tablets and particularly the next to thetopmost tablet against the opposite wall, thus holding these tabletsfrom movement when the topmost tablet is being forced rearward.

The coin controlled actuating mechanism forms no part of this inventionand is not illustrated. in the present drawings, a particular form ofsuch mechanism being illustrated, however, described, and claimed inprior Patent No.1,802,- 488 issued April 28, 1931.

Any suitable actuating mechanism may be used whereby the shaft 41 may bemanually or automatically rotated upon the deposit of a coin.

I have simply illustrated for this purpose a handle 50 mounted upon theplate 51 which forms part of the front plate of the machine, this handlehaving a shaft 52 having a clutch face meshing with the clutch face 41It will be understood that the only reason for having the shafts 41 and52 formed as two sections is simply to permit the plate 51 to be takenoff when occasion may re quire and that I do not wish to limit myself tothis nor to any specific means for operating the shaft 41. Furthermore,it is obvious that I do not wish to be limited to the use of the shaft41 as an actuating means for the shaft 19 as other means might beprovided for actuating the shaft 19, but where these vending cabinets orcases are disposed one beside the other in gangs, it is ob vious thatthe means in this case should be disposed on the front of the cabinet.Where, however, a single cabinet is used, the means for operating theshaft 19 mi ht be disposed on the side of the cabinet. Neither do I wishto be limited to the details of construction illustrated as these maybe-varied in many ways without departing from the spirit of theinvention as defined in the appended claims.

I have illustrated in Figure 9 the means whereby vended. The slot forthe introduction of the coin is designated 56. The plate 11 is slottedas at 52 and pivoted upon this plate is a lever 53, one end of which isdisposed within this slot and the lower end of the lever is connected bya link 54 to a pivoted coin closing member 55. When the articles arestacked upon the plate 11, the weight of the article or articles forcesthe inner end of the lever 53 downward, thus shifting the member 55 outof its position in front of the slot.

As soon as the last article has been vended, the weight of these parts53, 54 and 55 will cause the member 55 to swing to a slot obstructingposition across the slot 51, thus preventing the introduction of a coin.

It will be seen that the advantages of this construction are many, themain advantage being that the magazine may contain any desired number ofarticles, the number being only limited by the height of the mechanismand that no matter how many articles there are contained in themagazine, there will be no more frictional resistance to the dischargeof the first article, than there will be to the discharge of the lastarticle. Furthermore, it will be noted that the same magazine and thesame vending mechanism may be used for articles of different thicknessesas after the arm 23' has made its ejecting movement, it willautomatically drop down upon the next article without regard to thethickness of the article vended. The construction is such that tabletsvarying between a maximum thickness and a minimum thickness may bereadily vended. It is obvious also that the lining 12 may be readilyadjusted to suit tablets of different widths, though ordinarily schooltablets, while varying in thickness and in quality of paper, are made ofcertain standard widths and lengths. In placing the tablets in positionwithin the magazine, the operator simply opens the front of the cabinet,then lifts the ejector arm 23 to the full height of the shaft 19,stacking the tablets within the magazine, bringing their front edgesagainst the flanges 13 and then lower the arm on to the first tablet ofthe series with the roller projecting over the forward edge of thetablet. This is all that is necessary to do in filling the magazine.Then the front plate is closed and locked and the machine is ready forvending.

It will be seen that the supporting plate 11 is curved upward at itsrear end and then downward as at 11a. This I have found in actualpractice to be necessary in order that a certain amount of resistancewill be offered to the movement of the tablets toward the rear under theaction of the ejector particularly as regards the last tablet of theseries.

It will be noted as one of the advantages of the invention that thetablets are not vended directly through a slot in the front of thecasing which has been the case in all vending machines known to me wherethe article is ejected or pushed out from the magazine. Where thearticle is vended directly by it being pushed out of such aslot, it isnecessary that the slot should be of the same width or approximately thesame width as the article being vended in order that the walls of theslot shall hold either the superincumbent articles or an article belowfrom being pushed out at the same time. As a consequence, this slot musthave a size very closely approximating the thickness of the article andthus each vending machine must be made with particular relation to thethickness of the article being vended. This is Another objection to theejection of an article directly through a slot in the ejector is thatwith the opening so closely approximating the thickness of the articleas it has to do, the article, if there is the least-inequality inthickness,- is very liable to be torn, scored, or otherwise marred.There is nothing in my machine which mars the article in any way.

The, ejector does not have prongsor teeth which engage the upper face ofthe article to force it out through a slot which is necessary even inthose machines which under some circumstances vend articles by pushingthem fromthe top of the pile, but the article is simply shifted rearwardagainst no impediment whatsoever and then allowed to drop of its ownweight downward through a chute and be discharged, Furthermore in thosemachines known to me in which an article is vended from the top of apile or stack,

there has been a slot in the front wall of, the machine through whichthe article must be pushed by the ejector and obviously means must beprovided for raising the articles upward step by step as the ejectorforces out the topmost article. Thishas necessitated a spring or weightfor this purpose whereas in my machine no spring or weight is used, thearticles resting one upon another and the ejector following down step bystep as the articles are ejected without any shifting of the articlesand without the necessity ofany spring actuated means. I I

I claim:- v

1. A vending machine including a nagazine for stackedarticles, avertical oscillatable shaft extending upward through the magazineane'jec tor movable vertically upon saidshaft but rotating therewith andresting by its own weight upon 'the top of the stack in the magazine andfollowing. downwardly as the articles are discharged one by one from thestack, the ejector including ,an,

arm and a leaf spring forming part 9f and eX- tending beyond the arm andcarrying at its, ex tremity a roller adapted to engage against the edgeof the article, and a vertically disposed blade,

resting upon the top of the article.

2. A vending machineincludin a ma gazine for stacked articles, avertical, oscillatable shaft ex;

resting upon the top of the article, the roller being loosely mountedfor slight vertical movement.

3. A vending machine including a casing, an article support in thecasing forming the bottom of; a magazine on which the articles arestacked in. superimposed relation, the rear wall of the casing beingspaced from the rear of said support and forming a discharge chute,uanejector mounted within the casing resting upon the topof the stack andfollowing downwardly by its own weight as the articles are dischargedfrom the stack and having means for engaging only the topmost article,manually operable means for shifting the ejector in a direction to shiftsaid article toward the chute, and means acting automatically to-bindagainst the articles immediately below the topmost article to hold thesearticles from shifting movement when the topmost article is shifted by.

the ejector. V

4. A vending machine including a magazine for stacked articles, a shaftextending upward through the magazine, an ejector resting upon the topof the stack of articles, and slidingly mounted upon said shaft todescend by gravity as the articles are vended, the ejector rotating withtheshaft, the ejector comprising an arm and an article engaging memberresiliently carried at-the:

end ,of the arm, and means for holding the subjacent articles. againstdislodgment when the ejector arm is operated comprising a platesurrounding the shaft and resting upon the arm, a spring connecting thearm to the plate, and a member carried by said plate and dependingtherefrom and having a portion adapted to engage the edge of adjacentarticles below the topmost article as the ejector arm is swung to ejectthe article.

5, A vending machine including a casing, an article support in thecasing forming the bottom of a magazine on which articles are stacked insuperimposed relation, a shaft extending vertically through said'magazine to one side of said plate, an ejector arm slidably mounted uponthe shaft but rotating therewith, the extremity of the arm carrying adownwardly urged leaf spring, a circular stud carried upon the end ofthe leaf spring, and-having a socket in its lower end, a roller disposedin'the socket, a vertically disposed blade mounted upon. the extremityof the spring and extending toward the rear Wall of the casing, theunder edge of said blade being rounded to bear against the article, avertical stem carrying the roller and extending upward through the armand having a head at its upper end, the stem permitting a movement ofthe roller into or out of the socket, a plate loosely surrounding theshaft and resting upon the arm, and having a depending element adaptedas the plate is rotated to engage against the side edges of adjacentarticles just below the'topmost article, and a contractile springengaging said arm on said plate and acting as the arm is shiftedrearward to discharge an article to cause said element to bind againstsubjacent articles and hold the subjacent articles from movement,manually operable means for rotating' said shaft in a direction to ejectthe article, and spring means for returning the shaft to its initialposition.

6. A vending machine including a casing, a substantially horizontalsupport within the casing forming the bottom of a magazine in whicharticles' are disposed in superposed relation, one wall of thecasingbeing spaced from the rear end of said support and constituting aportion of a chute, and means operable from the exterior of the casingengaging the topmost article of the series and movable in one directionto shift the article toward the wall of the casing, and beyond thesupporting plate whereby the article will project over theedge of theplate, said means including a member bearingagainst the top of thearticle as the ejecto'r is moved in a reverse direction and holdingthearticle from toppling over the edge of the support until the ejector hasbeen returned substantially to its initial position.

'7; A vending machine including a magazine for stacked articles and anejector resting upon the top of the stack as the articles are dischargedfrom'the stack the ejector carrying at its ex-' tremity a rollerengaging against the edge of the article to-eject when the ejector ismoved in one its ing part of and extending beyond the arm, the leafspring having an angularly extending portion at its end, a downwardlyprojecting hollow stud on said portion adapted to engage over the edgeof the article to be vended, the stud being formed with a socket and aroller supported within said socket for vertical movement with relationto the socket, the roller bearing against the upper surface of a lowerarticle when the topmost article has been discharged and the ejector ismoving back to its initial position.

HENRY C. WILLIAMSON.

